Many suggestions have been made for improvements to molded resin pallets, which supposedly offer advantages over wooden pallets. In the marketplace, however, wooden pallets still dominate, and molded plastic pallets have found it difficult to compete.
One suggestion identified in the prior art of resin pallets is to mold a top or deck separately from a molded bottom or base and then interconnect the two parts. Examples of this include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,029,583; 3,835,792; 5,417,167; and 6,622,641. Two other U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,354,228 and 5,333,555, suggest bowing of boards or slats to fit into pallet stringers. The interconnections proposed by such patents have proven to be weak and easily broken or to involve extra fasteners such as screws or glue, which raise manufacturing expense and cause other problems. Pallet parts have also been welded together, but this has not proved satisfactory. Problems have included the weldability of the materials involved, the difficulty of creating secure welds over large areas to be joined and the inability to disassemble them for cleaning.
Various strengthening inserts, such as steel rods or strips, glass or carbon fibers, and other materials, have been incorporated into resin pallets to increase their strength. The use of these materials generally results in higher costs than the marketplace will bear, and also experience problems in pallet durability.
Exemplary embodiments described herein overcome these deficiencies. Certain embodiments especially provide multi-piece molded resin pallets and containers that are ruggedly interlocked, durable, and able to withstand abuses such as occur with forklifts and pallet jacks. Exemplary embodiments also reduce the expense of molded resin pallets while increasing their durability, so that molded pallets can compete successfully with wooden pallets.